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OPINION

The Register editorial: History suggests new year may bring big events

After reading the year-end reviews of major events of the past 12 months, Iowans arising today can only speculate about what the next year might bring.

If the past is any indication of the future, when you look over the past 100 years, it’s safe to say many landmark events in history will be noted in this new year.

Here are some of the big events from the past century to refresh your memory.

100 years ago, in 1914:

Feb. 12, the first stone was set in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

May 9, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first official federal Mother’s Day holiday.

Aug. 6, Austria-Hungary declared war against Russia and Serbia, launching the war to end all wars, though it would later be remembered as World War I.

75 years ago, in 1939:

Jan. 16, the comic strip “Superman” first appeared in newspapers across the country.

April 14, the novel “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck was published.

July 4, New York Yankee first baseman Lou Gehrig gave his “luckiest man on the face of the Earth” speech at Yankee Stadium following his diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Nov. 15, President Franklin Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial.

50 years ago, in 1964:

Jan. 8, President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered his first State of the Union address to Congress, in which he declared war on poverty.

Jan. 11, “On Smoking and Health,” a commission report to the surgeon general of the United States, is issued, the first surgeon general’s report to definitively link smoking and lung cancer and heart disease.

Feb. 9, the British rock group the Beatles appeared on the “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

June 19, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed the Senate following earlier passage by the House.

Aug. 7, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave President Johnson authorization to use virtually open-ended war powers against North Vietnam.

Sept. 27, the report of the Warren Commission, which concluded Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, was released to the public.

Oct. 14, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was relieved of power by opponents in the Kremlin.

May 13, students began a hunger strike calling for political reforms, which led to public demonstrations in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

June 15, a new law passed by the Danish Parliament legalizing gay marriage took effect.

Nov. 9, East Germany opened its borders, and Germans began tearing down the Berlin Wall.

Dec. 17, the animated TV show “The Simpsons” made its debut.

Those events over the past century shaped the world we live in today. There is no way to know what lies ahead in the coming year. All we can know is that whatever transpires over the next 12 months will shape the future as well, in ways large and small.